Michelle's blog

The Barnes Children's Literature Festival is GREAT. I was lucky enough to be invited back this year having performed my 'Goodnight Spaceman' event there in 2016. This year we all went on 'A Beginner's Guide to Bear Spotting' - and what fun we had.

Lots of children had brought along their bears, and we decided my own blue teddy bear should be called Sarah. Naturally. We imagined we were going on a trip to the woods and looking for bears. We made masks and the kids even helped me 'blend in' by camouflaging my face. You should have seen the look on Michael Rosen's face when I returned to the green room...

I've since removed the face paint, but it stains and I still look a little jaundiced. A fair price to pay for a wonderful day out. As well as all the brilliant festival volunteers I also got to meet Beanstalk, Authorfy and one of my all time picture book faves Guy Parker-Rees. Plus I snuck in an ice cream before going home. With any luck I'll be back again next year.

A lovely family day out

Thanks so much to Amanda and the team for inviting me and making me so welcome. Thanks also to all who came along - it was especially good to have a repeat visitor who said they enjoyed last year's event so much they had to come back. That made me feel very happy.Looking forward to meeting more families (and buying more face wipes...) for Greenwich Book Festival on the 26th!